WACO - Coming off its first Sun Belt Conference series win of the season, the UT Arlington baseball team (8-15, 2-4 SBC) will travel to Waco for a midweek showdown against the Baylor Bears (12-11, 2-4 Big 12) on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark.
 

PITCHING MATCHUP
First Pitch	UT Arlington	DBU
Tuesday, 6:30 pm CT	RHP Cade Citelli	RHP Brett Garcia
Big 12 Now/ESPN+ | Live Stats | UTA Games Notes

UTA NOTES

• The long ball has been hard to come by this season for the Mavericks, so Steven Saunders had to come up with on in a non-traditional way. At Globe Life Field against DBU (March 22), he used a gracious bounce off the right-center wall to hit an inside-the-park home run, beating the throw home for his third home run of the season.
• Matt Cavanagh played an instrumental part to the Mavericks picking up their first Sun Belt Conference series win this weekend as the redshirt sophomore slashed .667 / .727 / .889 at the plate and drove in a team-high five runs, while score twice himself. He also led the Mavericks with eight total bases.
• Redshirt freshman Zach Henry has been impressive at the plate this season, leading the Mavericks in batting average (.317), on-base percentage (.488) and slugging percentage (.460).  His 16 walks on the year are more than double the next closest Maverick (Jaden Brown - 7).
• The Maverick pitching staff has been sitting opponents down this year, recording double-digit strikeouts in 10 different games this year. They've struck out at least eight batters in 15 of their 23 games.
• Designated hitter Steven Saunders and First Baseman Oscar Ponce have successfully been putting the ball in play this season. The two lead the Mavericks with five multi-hit games. Ponce also leads the team with 18 RBI.
• When given a lead, UTA has done a good job holding onto it. When leading after six innings, the Mavericks are 6-0 on the season. However, when trailing after five innings, UTA is just 1-14.
• Head Coach Darin Thomas is closing in on 400 career wins - all while the head coach at UTA.  He currently sits at 397 and is looking to become just he second Maverick coach to reach 400 career wins. He already has the 2nd most wins in UTA history, trailing only Butch McBroom who has 756 from 1974-1999.

KNOW YOUR OPPONENT | BAYLOR

• Baylor enters the contest with a 12-11 record and are coming off a series loss where they dropped two out of three to Oklahoma in Norman. The Bears did win the Sunday contest 16-8, however.
• Runs have been hard to come by for Baylor opponents, as the Bears are currently second in the nation in double plays (27) and double plays per game (1.17).
• Small ball is a key part to the Bear's game plan. With 14 sacrifice bunts on the season, the Bears are currently 30th in the nation in the category and 2nd in the Big 12. Carlos Cardoza-Oquendo is 8th in the nation with six sacrifice bunts.
• Tre Richardson is the lone Bear that qualifies with a .300 average. However, there are five Bears with double-digit RBI - led by Kyle Nevin's 19 on the season.
• The Bears don't steal often, but when they do, it's been successful. Baylor is 20-for-25 on stolen base attempts on the season.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 124th all-time meeting between the Bears and Mavericks with Baylor holding an 88-35 lead in the series. The Two teams have alternated wins and loses the previous six games, dating back to 2016. Last season saw a pair of one run games which included an 11th-inning walk-off for the Mavericks in Arlington and an 8th inning go-ahead run for the Bears in Waco.

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